Galactic Civil War
by Feredir
Summary: Set in the Galactic Civilization game. 2225, war returns to the galaxy. The Drengin broke the twentysix year old treaty. As the galaxy chooses sides and braces for the coming storm. Fallow President Alan Bradley as he leads humanity through the chaos.
1. Dawn

Episode 1: Dawn

"Vice President Bradley, please report to the bridge."

His eyes open, the room was as black as night. He turned over in his bed to look at the clock, it's green numbers were bright in the darkness of the room, 0915, asleep less then an hour. Rest is something Alan Bradley, Vice President of the Terran Alliance, doesn't get to enjoy. Not when your second in command of all of humanity. Less then an hour ago, Bradley was finally able to escape from a war briefing that had lasted well over twelve hours.

The Drengin Empire had broken the treaty signed twenty-six years ago, by invading the demilitarized zone. Spies report that a massive military build up of the Drengian forces is occurring. After this reports began flying about other major military mobilization occurring throughout the galaxy. The Yor Collective and the Dominion of Korx have already sent emissaries to the Drengin reforming their alliance from twenty-six years ago. While the Altarian Republic and the Torian Confederation have reformed their military alliance with humanity. The very powerful Arcean Empire have issued an order of neutrality in the coming chaos, as much as expected. As of yet, no words have been heard from the Iconian Refuge, Darth Legion, or the mysterious Thalan Empire. Many smaller civilizations have broken all formal communications with both sides.

The mission Bradley was given last night by President Gorgian was to seek out a meeting with Emperor Iso the Wise, leader of the Iconian Refuge, for they share a common disliking of the Drengian and have always been on friendly terms with humans. Already on board his ship the _**United Star Ship Mars**_, the Vice President of the Terran Alliance is always away from Earth on business, Bradley set a new course for New Iconia.

Alan got out of bed and walked to the bathroom. Turning on the light he flinched as his eyes adjusted to the light. Looking at himself in the mirror he saw a haggard looking 47 year old man, who had the facial features more suitable for a farmer rather then a politician. His years as a fighter pilot in the Galactic Alliance Armada has left him with a grim expression, along with a light scar above his right eye. His line of work has caused his hair to gray prematurely, and now only a few strands of his original coal black hair remained. He wasn't exactly a tall person, but neither did he consider himself short.

He splashed some water on his clean shaved face, when the intercom sounded again. "Vice President Alan Bradley, please report to the bridge immediately." He wiped his face dry on a towel hanging over the shower door, "Well, at least they said please," he thought to himself.

The _**Mars **_was a fine ship, one of the best most thought, the best the crew thought. It was a simple ship of simple design, nothing over the top like the Altarian royal ships. A member of the Flagship class, the _**Mars **_was designed for combat and for diplomacy assignments. The designers describe them as "a little bit of everything, packed into one ship."

The ship was divided into two sections, anterior and posterior sections, containing eighteen decks. The anterior section, which housed the bridge, command points, and most of the housing, is shaped like a saucer. While the posterior section, housing engines and all of the "machinery" of the ship, juts directly out of the back of the saucer with two nacelle mounted on opposite sides of each other, these nacelle hold the hyper drive engines.

Not the first of it's name, the _**Mars**_ official name is the_** United Star Ship Mars 14440-C**_, commonly referred to as the _**USS Mars C**_ by the designers or just the _**Mars **_by the public and the crew. A ship named _**Mars**_ has always been in the service of the Vice President since the beginning of the Terran Alliance.

The _**Mars**_ was one of the four ships in the Flagship class, each made for one of the high officials in the Alliance government. The other three ships of the Flagship Class, _**USS Earth**_,_** USS Jupiter**_, and the_** USS Saturn**_, are in the service of the President, High Admiral, and Congress of the Terran Alliance. These three ships are of the same design and capabilities of the _**Mars**_, of all four only the _**Jupiter**_, under the command of the High Admiral, has ever seen battle. The President, Vice President, or Congress have never gone seeking conflict.

Alan Bradley wondered why this was, as he entered the lift to the bridge.

The doors slid open, before Bradley was the bridge. As simple in design as the ship that it commands. Cylinder in shape, the far wall is taken up by the monitor, while the back wall has many computer stations. Two lifts flank the room on the side walls, as well as connect the monitor wall with the computer wall. In the middle were three chairs, the middle chair was reserved for the Vice President.

In the chair to the right of the Vice President's chair sat a young woman. Vivian Kennedy, Captain Vivian Kennedy to be exact, stood when she saw Bradley enter. Her golden shoulder length hair waved through the air as she turned to face him. Her face was clean and glowing. Alan would have thought her beautiful in his youth, but his age had caught up with him and his tastes for women. She was twenty-five, a young upstart who energy and commitment had shot her up the ranks to Captain. She never expected her first ship to command would be the _**Mars **_under the watchful eye of the Vice President himself.

"Captain, what is the reason for getting me out of bed?" Bradley asked with a yawn, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"We've received a dispatch from Starbase Santa Fe approximately thirty minutes ago, sir." She said in a tone that was both frighten and bewildered.

"Get to the point Captain, why does this require my attention?"

"You have to hear for your self, sir." As she said this she signaled one of the crewmen at the computer wall. "We been able to clean up the audio but the video is still being interfered.

On the screen a face appeared, though it was hard to make out through the static and interference, you could see the look of panic on the man's face. Then he spoke:

"_This is Commander Richard Stilne of the United Starbase Santa Fe. I'm am sending this message on all frequencies to any Terran Alliance or Ally ship in the sector or neighboring sectors. Please help! We are under attack! Attacked without warning, we believe they came from the demilitarized zone. A whole fleet! Our defensives are being overrun. We have taken heavy damage, and have many casualties. We have yet to determine who our assailants are. We do not believe they are Drengin or Yor. But their attentions are clear, they mean to destroy this Starbase utterly. I have never seen ships such as these in my entire career. They look almost aliv…"_

The screen went silent, the picture went to complete static. "Is that all? What was the rest?" Bradley asked with a sense of urgency. He knew that war was coming, but he had no idea the enemies could mass an offensive fleet so quickly.

"That's all there is sir. The dispatch ends there. I sent out a probe and the data has just came back." She stopped.

"And?" Bradley asked even though he already knew the answer. "What of the Santa Fe?"

"Gone, sir. Completely destroyed, all that remains is a cloud of debris. There are no signs of escape pods or a fleet of ships."

"Dear god!" Someone gasped from the back of the bridge. Bradley ignored it, his mind was swimming in a field of possibilities. After what seemed an eternity he looked up. "Contact the _**Earth **_and send the display to my office. Find out the exact statistics of Santa Fe before it was destroyed. I want everything from how many people were aboard to what temperature the third deck hanger was at the time it was destroyed. Set up a team to try and get more of the dispatch cleaned up. I want to know what destroyed that starbase! Organize the senior staff to meet in the conference room in one hour."

"Yes sir!" Vivian said with out hesitation.

The conference room, located on deck two below the bridge, was a rectangle room with a long rectangle table as the main feature. Windows looking out into space adorned the far wall, while on the near wall were pictures of past ships named _**Mars**_. Monitors and other viewing equipment lined the table and unused walls.

The entire senior staff sat at the table, all but the heads of the table were occupied. The staff sat there chatting in a buzz of conversation, Vivian Kennedy sat silently to the right of one of the ends of the table. She knew what the message they received meant, though young, she knew war was on the horizon. She felt a complete wave of emotion soar over her as she sat there, everything from feeling ashamed that as Captain of the _**Mars **_she would not see combat to defend her people, to relief for the same reason.

The doors slid open, and the Vice President walk in with the same grim look he had when he heard the message earlier today. He sat himself at the end of the table to the left of Vivian. "Well, I'm sure all of you have heard the troubled news by now." He said in his bleak tone. "What we have been fearing for twenty-six years now, is comeing true. We are again at the brink of war. Now, let see what we can do to keep from going over the edge. What new information do we have about the Santa Fe?"

"Not much, sir." said a man by the name of Lieutenant Steven Trisk. The Head of the Department of Sensors was a middle aged man, probably in his early Thirties, he had a look of one who wished he was still in his party boy days. "We know that the explosion that destroyed the Santa Fe was triggered by a blast in the ammunitions bay. It looks like a beam weapon tore through the hull and hit the ammunitions bay, setting off the missiles that were stored inside. Set off a chain explosion that spread through the starbase leading to it's destruction."

"Thank you Lieutenant, what does Navigations have?" asked Bradley.

"Well, Santa Fe was located on the edge of sector 14-24, our current position is in the neighboring sector, 14-23." Avery Alexandra, also a Lieutenant, head of the navigations department explained. Like Trisk, Avery was in her early thirties, though she wore a look of strict determination."We concluded that if the _**Mars **_was in danger of attack by this fleet, they would have destroyed us by now."

"Most likely it was a lightning attack." Lieutenant Commander Jean Langevin, head of tactical department, added. Langevin is a strong loud man of fourty years. "The fleet swoops in from the demilitarized zone quickly does what it came here to do. In this case it was here obviously to destroy the Santa Fe, a tactically important border starbase. Then flees back into the demilitarized zone where the fleet knows it won't be followed."

"What about Earth? Is the planet in any danger because of this attack?" Captain Kennedy asked.

"Well, the main defense that Earth has, in this case, is the distance between here and the Sol System. A whole fleet won't be able to travel that far with out being detected." Lieutenant Alexandra explained.

"And if it did, the Sol Defensive perimeter will cut a single fleet to shreds. One starbase it could destroy, but a score of starbases and the defensive fleets will annihilate this mystery fleet." Lieutenant Commander Langevin boasted as he nodded his head and grunted in pride.

"What of the message? Have we been able to clear it up any, do we know what he was about it say?" Bradley wondered.

"Well, communications reports to me that the cut off word was "_alive_". But as to clearing it up to get the rest, they tell me, that there just isn't any left. That was the entire message." Vivian explained. "I sent the message to the science department and asked them to make a list of all the known civilizations that use animate material in their ship designs. They have informed me that of all the known civilizations, none use animate material in their ship designs."

"So what exactly does this mean?" Bradley asked. He was about to continue when he noticed the monitor on the table in front of Captain Kennedy light up. He could tell a message was scrolling across the screen.

Vivian read the message, knowing it had to be important to interrupt a meeting of the Senior staff. The message was written in a hurry, it jumped around constantly until she read the final line. Her eyes widened, and her face froze in a look of shook and horror.

Bradley saw the look. Questions filled his head, he also knew that it must be of extreme importance, for interrupting the meeting, and a military matter, for contacting the Captain instead of himself. "What is it Captain?" He finally managed to say.

Her voice barely a whisper she said, "Reports just came in, we were looking towards the wrong Earth sir. The _**USS Earth **_has just been destroyed by the Drengin. Sir, President Gorgian is dead, we are at war!"


	2. War On Two Fronts

Episode 2: War On Two Fronts

"The assassination of President Gorgian and the destruction of the starbase Santa Fe. Both of these atrocities, which have been played out in Terran space, have been committed by the Drengin Empire. It pains me that my first act as President of the Terran Alliance, is to come before the honorable Congress of the Alliance and ask for a declaration of war against the Drengin Empire and their allies the Dominion of Korx and the Yor Collective. For war is already upon us, human blood has been spilled, human lives have been lost. Over 3000 were aboard the Santa Fe and over 300 on the _**USS Earth**_ with President Gorgian. Tough, long, and painful this war will be, but the resolve of humanity will win out through the violent night. The enemies forces are massive, but alone in this fight we are not. The leaders of the Altarian Republic and the Torian Confederation are delivering messages, much like this one, to their respective legislative bodies as we speak here. Together our three galactic nations survive and prosper in peace after we defeat our enemies with our righteous might. The Drengin Empire attacked us when we least expected, hoping to drive our people into hiding in fear, to discourage our military forces into fleeing, to make us think we have no chance of victory. But, all the Drengin Empire has done is strengthened our determination to fight, live, and to be free!" Applause exploded in the great hall as now President Alan Bradley finished his speech. He stepped down from the podium. When he was out of the sight of the senators, Bradley smiled, he had won the crowd, he would have his war.

The Congress of the Alliance was the legislative, law making, body of the Terran Alliance. Headquarters in New York City on Earth, the Congress is made up of elected senators from each planet in the Alliance. Each planet received two senators that have been voted into office by their respective planet. The Congress consisted of over two hundred senators, about half are members of the Universalists party, Bradley own party. The other half was a mixture of the other seven political parties, with the Populist in the lead with twenty-five percent of the entire congress.

Bradley was taken, immediately after the speech, to his personally plane to take him to his new residence. Two weeks have passed since the Santa Fe and Earth, and the new President was sworn in on his ship. Like the President the ship also got a new name. The _**Mars **_is officially now the _**USS Earth-D**_, the President Personally carriage of the stars. Bradley new residence was located in the Earth city of Paris, home of the executive seat of the Terran Alliance. It took ten minutes to fly from New York City to Paris, there is no air traffic for the President.

They landed on the Presidential Residence private airfield and spaceport, Bradley knew that the new _**Earth **_was stationed underneath the airstrip at a constant ready to be launched in needed immediately. A small control tower stood off to the side of the field, from there a controller informed the President that a his advisors were waiting for him in the War Room.

The residence it's self, officially called the Executive House, was nothing over the top. It was a modest mansion, if mansions can be modest. Divided into two wings, the west and east wings, one for business and the other the residence. It has all the necessities to keep the President comfortable and safe from all disasters, naturally.

The room went silent as the President entered. The room was full of monitors and projectors and all types of viewing machinery, Bradley had only been here seen in here once before. That was the day that late President Grogian told him to meet with the Iconians, a mission he was never able to complete. Around the table located at the center of the room, all the late presidents, therefore now his, advisers sat waiting for his audience.

Before Bradley sat down he said, "Gentlemen and Ladies, you have your war." He sat down. The advisors frowned at the statement, but Bradley knew they were all hounds. Hounds looking for any praise they can get from the leader of the Terran Alliance. "What is the news?"

A round plump man with a red nose and cheeks by the name of Gregory Hidalgo, Secretary of the Galactic Navy, started. "Well, the fleet that destroyed the _**Earth**_ was only an advanced fleet. Which means it not a real treat, it preyed on some of our merchant vessels in the area, until a regional Defense Fleet, led by the_** Bradley**_." The President flinched, he detested that ship. Just because he managed to get elected they name a ship after him. The advisors pretend to not notice. "They defeated the smaller enemy fleet easily, only taking minor damage, so we considered it a complete success." By damages he meant causalities Bradley knew.

"Are we under threat of a real invasion then?" Bradley asked.

This time it was a plump round woman, by the name of Madam Jelks. She was a loud individual, who loved to boast about how she was born on Earth, especially to the non-earthborn humans on the council of advisors. Bradley wasn't really sure what her officially position was in the council, he made a mental note to find out. "Well, theoretically were always under threat of invasion if you look at it. But does this advanced fleet, signaling that a large invasion is on it's way? Well, that would be why it's called an advanced fleet now isn't it." She snorted. "But, were here on Earth. An attacking enemy fleet can never make it this far, so we are in no danger whatsoever."

Bradley didn't understand her logic, he ruled more then just Earth. "What about the people not on Earth? What about the populated planets near the demilitarized zone? What have they to do if an invasion comes?"

"Well," she paused. "Those people near the demilitarized zone, as long as they fly under the banner of the Terran Alliance, they will be protected." It wasn't an answer Bradley knew, more of a threat. Madam Jelks thought Earth was the only suitable planet for a human to live on, and thought all those stupid enough to leave it didn't deserve to be protected by the mother planet.

"How many fleets are active at this moment?" The President asked.

"Four, with five in reserves. And three more are capable of being created." Said some man, Bradley didn't know his name, and frankly he didn't care.

"Send the four fleets to the demilitarized zone, bring the reserves into commission, them all but one on patrols of out territory. Leave the one on permanent guard of the Sol System, I don't want any more surprises. Creates those other fleets and put them on high alert standby. Send messages to the border planets and tell them to prepare their ground to space defenses and to set their garrisons on high planetary invasion alert. Now if you excuse me, I'm needed at Crosspoints station for a meeting with the leaders of the Altarian Republic and the Torian Confederation."

"Wait, President, don't you want your advisors to go with you on this war mission?" Almost all of them said at once.

"No." He said simply and left.

"They've broken through the air defensives over January City! Enemy troops are landing on the ground!" the intercom yelled. "If we lose the City the planet is as good as lost! Were doomed!" It ended abruptly.

Get a hold of yourself, she thought. She wasn't sure if she was directing her thoughts to the voice or herself. It wasn't hopeless was it, they couldn't lose the air to the invaders? If the air was taken, then the ground would be virtually defenseless to attack and invasion.

Beams of light rained down around her, a lonely pilot in the mist of battle. She dodged the light with skillful precision. A plane of foreign design caught her eye. She pulled on the stick to turn and meet the new adversary. A grayish tan in hue, four wings jutted out in an X shape from the hull. Designed for both lower space and atmospheric combat, the enemy plane was a formable foe. But she could tell by the way the wings shook during flight that the pilot was inexperience, or at least, not as experienced as her. She pulled the trigger, two lights of her own blasted from the front of her plane, and then pulled up just in time to dodge two missiles that exploded on impact with another enemy ship next to her plane. The explosion blinded her for an instant, but her aim was true, one of her lasers cut one of the four wings from the plane's hull, while the other hit the engines direct on. The foe began it's decent towards the ground with a trail of smoke fallowing it, until a ball of fire consumes it on collision.

"Largar!" A different, yet illustrious, voice sounded. "Largar, Hellgin is dead, shot down. You are now in command." It went silent.

"Damn," was all that she could say. At the beginning of the day, she was third in command of the Air Defense Force (ADF) of the Penisola Port Province on the outer planet Cerci III. Now Kristina Largar was in charge of the whole division. "Damn," Kristina said again.

With two missiles launches she, the new commander, took out two more enemy planes. Balls of fire exploded all around her, as planes fell from the sky. Even though in battle you can't tell who is winning, her hopes weren't very high. How could a force, that was caught complete by surprise, win against a force a hundred times their size. She didn't even know the Terran Alliance was at war, for what other reason would Cerci III be attacked.

She fell two more planes when the order came over her radio. "Kristina Largar, this is Cerci Command. The Drengin have captured January City, the capitol is in their command. Command is taking up headquarters in Easter. The main bulk of the enemy forces, both air and ground, are moving towards you now. You are ordered to pull back to Penisola and hold off the enemy until evacuation can reach you by sea. You have your orders soldier, best of luck." The intercom went once again silent.

"Damn," she said once more before turning on her outward receiver for the radio. "All right pilots listen up, this is Largar. January has fallen, but the planet is still fighting. We've received orders to fall back to Penisola, we are to hold the city until evacuation reaches us by sea. These are our orders, I expect them to be fallowed. This part of the Campaign for Cerci III, for that is what this has become, is over."

Episode 3: The Battle of Cerci III 


End file.
